Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Pet Peeve No. 1

I don't know why, but I feel the need this morning to enumerate my pet peeves. Rather than flumping down a big list of them here, I thought I'd just dole them out one by one as I think of them over time.

First up: Using Movie Quotes in DVD Commercials to Comment on the DVD's Release

I hate this crap. It always annoys the hell out of me. There are - as far as I can tell - two trains of thought when it comes to doing a commercial for a DVD. You have to show footage of the movie and you therefore will most likely be playing a least some dialogue. Now, you can apparently either 1.) play random pieces of dialogue that seem to encapsulate the movie's tone ("I see dead people ..."), or 2.) you can pull random lines of dialogue from the film and intercut it with the narrator to make it sound as if the movie and your narrator are having a conversation.

Approach 1 doesn't bother me at all. But, holy crap in a hat, Approach 2 annoys the bejesus out of me every single time I see it. Mainly it's because the lines of dialogue that are selected are either ridiculously obtuse in how they're "commenting" on the narration or they're so representative of a scene that I recognize that I don't realize it was a comment on the narration and I sit there thinking "Why did they play that clip?" I then sit there thinking about it, have stopped watching the commercial, miss whatever it is they're saying, and then realize what was going on originally. And I get annoyed.

I mean, it's always something like this:

Narrator: This summer ...[shot of random Disney characters running]

Narrator: a beloved classic comes to your home for the first time in history.[cut to a shot of non-main character/obscure character]

Obscure Character: I find that hard to believe!

Narrator: On July 24th, Dumbiochio comes home on DVD.[cut to random action sequence with happy cartoon animals in a bobsled]

Cartoon animals in unison: AWESOME!!

Narrator: Loaded with extra features, posthumous director's commentary by Walt Disney, and an interactive Storyboard featurette, Dumbiochio is sure to endure for generations to come.[cut to shot of main character looking angrily at another character]

Main Character: I knew you were going to say that!

Narrator: But it's only available for a limited time, so don't miss this golden opportunity to own your very own copy of Dumbiochio on July 24th![cut to shot of crowd of happy animals]

Crowd of animals: [cheering wordlessly with whooping and "yays"]

[END]

That is the crap I'm talking about. I can't stands it, I tells ya. I wish they would stop and just show the damn movie instead of feeling like the public demands some kind of creative editing to make the movie comment on its own release.